“ReuseFest” Will Collect Variety Of Items For Non-Profit Organizations

The Pennsylvania Resource Council is giving Pittsburghers a good reason to clean out their homes and donate unwanted items during “ReuseFest” this Saturday, August 11. A wide variety of materials for reuse will be collected and then distributed to non-profit organizations.

Sarah Alessio Shea, the council’s Environmental Education Coordinator, said the event will be a “one-stop-shop” while spotlighting some of the city’s reuse-centered groups.

“There’s a lot of great non-profits in Pittsburgh that take material and find really great resources and uses for it and some people don’t know about them, so this is kind of a way to get attention to them,” Alessio Shea said.

The PA Resource Council has hosted many recycling events over the past several years. This will be the first year for “ReuseFest.” and Alessio Shea said they hope it will not be the last. “The idea was, ‘Yeah, let’s try this out, see how it works, get our partners involved,’ and then, hopefully, this will become a yearly event for us as well,” Alessio Shea said.

Items that will be accepted include bikes, medical supplies, usable building materials such as doors and lighting fixtures, clothing and household goods, gently-used furniture and mattresses, art supplies, and pet carriers.

Alessio Shea said the local community will benefit the most from the items collected during the event. “Most of it will be utilized in this area, like the Animal Rescue League. They’re looking for, like, cat carriers and dog carriers and items like that. Free Ride will use the bikes in their facility in Pittsburgh as well. Mainly Global Links is really the only organization that will be taking the material and taking it outside the Pittsburgh area,” Alessio Shea said.